The latest eruption from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano shot lava 1,200 feet high into the sky and went on for 9 hours. But it was something else, happening in the distance, that’s getting a lot of the attention.

Snowshoeing on Kīlauea? High fountain episodes pose new challenges to monitoring - Features | Hawaii Tribune-Herald

An Alaskan volcano that has been inactive for more than 100 years is showing signs of rumbling, according to scientists. However, there's a chance that the activity could be signs of a pending avalanche, rather than a volcanic eruption, NASA said.

Essentially, gas pistoning is a shallow, degassing-driven rise and fall of a lava surface. Often these pistons occur in narrow conduits — although they can happen in larger lava lakes and even in lava channels — and in bunches, as part of a series.

Watch Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano erupt for second major time in under two weeks Lava fountains reached heights of 1,250 feet in episode 26, a record for the eruption.

Watch live view of Kilauea, Hawaii’s most active volcano. The volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii has been erupting on-and-off since December.

Lava is spewing roughly 1,200 feet into the air at Mount Kilauea. You can watch live above. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says there

KILAUEA (HawaiiNewsNow) - Episode 28 of the of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption began at around 4:10 a.m. HST on Wednesday, July 9. Lava fountains are actively spewing upward of 150 feet into the air. Past episodes have produced lava fountains reaching 1,000 feet in the air.

If you’ve been following the ongoing episodic summit eruption of Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island, you might have seen the terms “gas piston” or “gas pistoning” show up in some of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory updates, photo captions and other places.

Lava fountains reach nearly 1,200 feet high in latest episode of Kilauea eruption - Hawaii News | Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory field engineers on July 10, 2025, visited monitoring stations downwind of the Kīlauea summit eruptive vents. They wore snowshoes, as the large footprint keeps the field engineers walking on top of the frothy pumice everywhere instead of sinking through it. (Photo Courtesy: US Geological Survey/M.Warren)